Podcast Sorting

MP3 players Sansa Fuze
1

Like others who have posted before me, I find the Fuze’s sorting of podcasts to be very confusing and frustrating. When I had my 16GB iPod nano, podcasts downloaded into iTunes were perfectly placed on the nano, were easy to located, and played in the correct chronological order. Since Windows Media Player does not have a built in podcatcher, I tried to use MediaMonkey to sync with the Fuze. Even with a script provided by someone (on anythingbutipod.com maybe), podcasts are not in the right order.

If I read the “fixes” on this site, I have to use MP3tag to change the parameters of the downloaded files to make them show up correctly. However, unless I have missed it, there is not a guide that explains how the Fuze sorts. There are several threads here, but they fizzle out before anyone provides definitive answers.

After several hours of fiddling with audiobooks, I think I finally figured out how to get a decent sort:

  1. Create a folder under Audiobooks using the author’s name.
  2. Create one file per CD.
  3. Make sure the Album name field for each file is identical.
  4. Make sure the Title for each track reflects its unique CD number (Disk 01, Disk 02).
  5. Wipe out the track number or make them all the same (not sure if this step is necessary).

Maybe all this work will become second nature. iTunes is not much better for audiobooks.

Is there software that will properly sync podcasts on the Fuze and cause them to display correctly? With the technique above, the Fuze is usable for audiobooks. It is, in my opinion, unusable for podcasts. Unless I can solve this problem, I may have to go backto an iPod. Not only is that solution expensive, but then I have to carry two players around.

During my screwing around trying to figure out the Fuze, the sorting has been unpredictable. Based on a recommendation here, after I deleted an audiobook that was not sorting correctly, I disconnected the USB cable to let the media files update (which is clearing out the database, I’m told.) After I copied the files back to the Fuze, they sorted in correct order. 

This player has the potential to be a great one, but the amount of experimentation that it is taking to reverse engineer its sorting parameters is excessive. It seems that by now, this problem should have been fully sorted (sorry) by Sandisk. From a coding perspective, it is not a difficult problem to solve. 

I’m sorry my first post is a rant, but I am frustrated with this unit. Thanks for any help you can provide. 

2

Load the latest firmware on your Fuze. This has folder view. Now you can just drag and drop folders of files onto your Fuze, and View them the same way they are on your pc.

3

It has the latest firmware. Using file names is not necessarily a solution, either. Take a look at this file name from one of my podcasts:

1_authKey_1232486651_f8e8d3647d63fd780931ec3812f1e47b.mp3

Other shows are similarly named. My assumption is that iTunes works on the tags, so the file name is not important. This file naming scheme seems to make the folder view unworkable. 

Again, is there a guide somewhere that explains the sorting schemes the Fuze uses, particularly for podcasts?

4

So rename the filenames to something that is reasonable.

5

That’s quite time consuming for 20+ podcasts per day.

Back to the original question: Is there software that will properly manage podcasts on the Fuze such that they will appear in proper order (without regard for how the software does it?)

Message Edited by neumannu47 on 08-08-2009 10:44 PM

6

You can use mp3Tag to  rename batches of files at a time.

7

Yes, that’s true. However, even Apple has figured out how to make podcast listening a breeze. It is my hope that Sansa has or will have similar functionality, whether through its own software or through a third party application. MediaMonkey is a great little program for podcatching and listening on a computer. It’s pretty useless for synchronizing on a Fuze because of the sorting. 

Someone somewhere should have figured all this out by now. Hopefully s/he will come along and offer some additional words of wisdom. I’d go back to my iPod, but I gave it to my daughter. Getting it back is not an option. It looks like I may have to buy another one. My podcast listening has declined dramatically since I gave away the iPod with the intention of mastering and using the Fuze.

8

Load the latest firmware on your Fuze. This has folder view. Now you can just drag and drop folders of files onto your Fuze, and View them the same way they are on your pc.

Not exactly…For me, I have found that the fuse lumps all of the folders under “New Folder”, which “it” has created on its’ own. The music, audiobooks, etc. are all jumbled together, making browsing as difficult as it was before. Is there not a way to view audiobooks/music in their respective folders, just like on my pc?

9

I copy and paste whole folders to the player’s music or podcast folders. I don’t have this problem you describe when using folder view.

10

@jk98 wrote:
I copy and paste whole folders to the player’s music or podcast folders. I don’t have this problem you describe when using folder view.

I “drag & drop” the folders to the music/podcast folders. Are you saying that you do not have this folder on yours named “New” that mine has created on its’ own? I guess I must be doing something wrong, I just don’t know what…

11

Solved for me! I picked this up while searching the net, & it has worked for me. I can now view each folder I create under “Music > Folders”.I would still like to get rid of the Sansa hierarchy and just use the mp3 player basically like a flash drive in regards to viewing the folders, but at least this is workable.

The real way to avoid this kind of madness is to switch USB modes (under Settings/System Settings) from MTP–Media Transfer Protocol, which connects to WMP–to MSC, which makes the Sansa work like a flash drive. (You’ll see two drives, for the internal memory and the card slot, in Computer or My Computer.) Then you can just drag-and-drop folders into the Sansa and see exactly what you’re getting.

12

I found the discussion because I’m having trouble finding podcasts I’ve transferred to my Fuze.  I’ve been catching podcasts with PodNova, and downloading them to my computer with Juice.  With my trusty old Sansa I would then copy the folders over to my player and play them.  I’ve tried this with the Fuze, but it sees only one of the folders I’ve copied, even though I copied them all to the same place.  I’ve had the same problem in MTP and MSC mode.

13

Don’t know if this would help, but what I did was;

  1. Updated the firmware

  2. Formatted the Fuze, dumping everything.

  3. Switch to MSC mode

  4. Power off & then back on.

At that point, I could see the Fuze in “My Computer” as another drive in which I could easily drag & drop the folders to it, create new folders, everything I wanted to do worked. I am pretty much happy with it at this point.

Message Edited by katzfuse on 08-15-2009 08:11 AM

14

  1.  The following worked for me to get Coast to Coast AM podcasts to play in sequence on the Sansa Fuze 8GB:

  2.  Plug Sansa into computer with Sansa in MSC mode (MSC mode may not matter).

  3.  Using iTunes, delete everything from your library but select keep files.  Click on add to library, and select all files in the podcast directory on the Sansa, do NOT have them in separate subdirectories in the podcast directory though this might work in that situation if repeated on each individual directory I haven’t tried it.

  4.  In iTunes,

Right click on the files that are now listed in your library after you select them all if they are not already selected.

Select get info, then 

Select artist and put in

Coast to Coast

Select genre and put in 

podcast

Select track and put in

1

Select OK

By select here I mean click on the box so a check mark shows up.  I realize that this could probably be done with an MP3 tag editor and that the artist could be something you select not Coast to Coast that I used here.  Also, one of you may see that not all of these steps are necessary or see an easier way.  Maybe there is a way so you don’t have to delete everything from the library first in iTunes.  Any further help or ideas appreciated.  I switched to Sansa because iPod kept forgetting where it was after 36 hours.  Are you listening Apple??

Me